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Toy Terror: Batteries Included
Toy Terror: Batteries Included was the twentieth book in the Give Yourself Goosebumps gamebook series. It was preceded by Escape from Camp Run-For-Your-Life and followed by The Twisted Tale of Tiki Island. The cover illustration showed Nasty Kathy, a vicious doll with a pink dress and razor teeth, breaking out of her box. Nasty Kathy was reaching up with her fingers with her pull-string out. Some of the other toys on the shelves appeared to be watching this happen. The tagline was, "Wind them up and watch them go... wild!" It was released in August 1997 and was 137 pages long. Plot The reader has just won a contest that will take them to a trip to the Hasley Toy Factory. From there, choosing whether or not to go on the tour will affect what sort of prizes you get. You get to choose between two really cool prizes: winning a toy of your very own or a tour of the Hasley Toy Factory. If you choose to attend the tour, you get locked inside. Watch out for the toys - they come alive at night. Rumor has it that they are plotting something top secret. And you especially want to watch out for Nasty Kathy. She's a dastardly doll with a bad attitude - and she doesn't like nosy kids like you! If you decide to skip the tour, the other prize you get is a kid-sized robot called the Annihilator 3000. You're into high technology - or so you thought. No sooner than you get it that it starts going on a rampage and starts destroying your home! How are you going to stop it - before it starts coming after you? Bad Endings * You decide to believe Benny's story about how he evaded Officer Murphy. But the book makes fun of your naivete and tells you what you should have known: that Benny is a toy and lured you to the factory. You're told to come back and try again for the "real" ending when you can stop being in denial and face reality. * After seeing Nasty Kathy come alive, you go home for your dad's camcorder to capture her on film. But by the time you get back, you have missed the tour and the factory is closed. Benny tells you how much fun he had without you, and you discover the batteries in the camcorder are dead anyway. The book sends you back to start again. * You panic at being locked in the factory, but then Bobaloo comes out and reveals that it was all part of a commercial shoot. You didn't react the way he wanted, so he and his camera crew kick you out of the factory, while Benny gets to be in the commercial. You don't get to see the factory or ask any of your questions. *Nasty Kathy has turned you into a life-sized doll. You agree to help the other toys out with their plan. Officer Murphy, a toy policeman, puts on an assembly at school about how kids should never abuse their toys. And he uses you as the demonstration dummy. *You do not have the right key to stop the toys, so Nasty Kathy unleashes the Zorgs on you, and they gnaw your face off. *You're trapped inside a toy car with Benny and Bobaloo, and decide to grab the car's steering wheel. But since your hands are taped together, and you don't know how to drive, you end up taking the car off the edge of the road into a river. Bobaloo and Benny survive the crash, since they're only toys. But you don't. *You trip and land in front of an army of green Army Men soldiers carrying rifles with real bayonets. They apparently kill you. *Calling 911 on a toy telephone summons toy police. They accuse you of breaking and entering. Then they break you up to get you to fit inside the toy police car. *After getting turned into a toy, you decide not to help the toys and call your mother instead. She arrives with Benny's father and two police officers. But she doesn't recognize you anymore, and the other toys have gone into their motionless state. The cops arrest you for impersonating a human. Since it's only your first offense, the judge tells you to do community service by guest starring for two months on the Dudley the Dragon show. You decide to stay a while longer so you can save up to get the plastic shell removed. *You and Benny stow away on an airplane, but are caught by Bobaloo's goons. Instead of taking you to Walt Disney World, where they're headed, they push you out of the airplane door without any parachutes. *Frozen solid by the Annihilator. *The Annihilator gets crushed by bookshelves. But when your mother gets home and sees what's happened, you just tell her you're clumsy, since you realize she won't believe you. *After you're knocked out by a hurricane storm, you wake up in your bed. Lightning damaged the house, destroying the Annihilator. But your mother has called the Hasley Toy Company to send a replacement. *You trick the Annihilator 3000 to get back in the box using your brother Geoffrey's favorite toy. Once it's inside, you call the Hasley Toy Company to take it back. But when Geoffrey finds out his favorite toy is now missing, he starts making a lot of trouble for you. * You try to cheat by saying you picked up a hand-held video game in aisle three. The book scolds you for cheating, and ends the story there. * Benny and Bobaloo tell you about their plan to make the world a better place for children. They intend to replace all authority figures with toys who can pass laws for things such as free bikes and time off school. Unfortunately, you're stuck with recharging all the batteries for the toys, apparently forever. Good Endings * After inserting the key into the Incredible Talking Spelling Thinking Intelligent Machine, you end up shutting down all the toys - including Benny, since he was a toy himself. You get home safely, but the book reminds you that you haven't really ''come to the end yet, because anyone you know (including your parents or your best friend) could secretly be a toy ... * You, Benny, and the toy pig escape the factory. He puts the key inside the Incredible Talking Spelling Thinking Intelligent Machine, shutting down the toys. At this point he reveals that ''he ''is a toy, and lured you to the factory with the promise of the tour; he needed your help to shut down the other toys. You're still wondering about the secret plans, but that is a story for another day. * All the toys suddenly stop moving. Bobaloo explains that you were in a new theme park called Toy World and that it was being tested. He then hands you a ticket book, but it says ten magazine subscriptions are required. * You find that the Annihilator 3000 had two smaller versions of itself inside. The bad Annihilator 1500 goes on about destruction. The good one tells you how to turn it off. You stash the bad robot in your closet, after you've turned it off (to use against the class bully when they start roaming around your yard). Then you discard the defective Annihilator 3000, box and all. * You and Mr. Whittle end up destroying the Annihilator 3000. Mr. Whittle says the model you got was only a test version. He then tells you he's going to enter your name in the big drawing and that you have a chance to win an improved version - the Annihilator 4000! * Benny reveals that he's a toy, and he was the one who entered your name in the list for the factory tour. That's why he placed the key into the Incredible Talking Spelling Thinking Intelligent Machine, once he and the stuffed pig were outside of the factory. You're still wondering about the secret plans, but that is a story for another day. Trivia *There are sixteen bad endings and five good endings. *Nasty Kathy's eyes are shown as red on the cover, but in the book are described as blue. * Although the books are usually gender-neutral to accommodate the reader, this one mentions in some places that "you" are male. *The reader makes a reference to the play money used in the Monopoly games. *Walt Disney World is mentioned in the book twice. On a related note, a live performance featuring characters from the ''Goosebumps series appeared at Disney's Hollywood Studios for a time. *The phrase, "You just keep going... and going... and going..." is a reference to the slogan of the Energizer batteries. *The book mentions at that the reader guest stars on the Dudley the Purple Dragon show. There actually was a show called The Adventures of Dudley the Dragon, which aired on PBS from 1993 to 1999. *The Hasley Toy Company is probably a mashup of Hasbro and Milton Bradley. *The phrase, "World's Largest Toy Selection" is a reference to Toys "R" Us. Category:Books